


the little key that opens a house

by anupturnedboat



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: And a little Brooke Davis for inspiration, Beacon Hills High School, Inspired by Poetry, Lydia-centric, Magical Lydia Martin, Other, Plans For The Future, Realization, Strength
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-10
Updated: 2014-09-10
Packaged: 2018-02-16 20:21:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2283291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anupturnedboat/pseuds/anupturnedboat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She starts school with armor built from scratch and newfound talismans.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the little key that opens a house

_Life kicks you around sometimes. It scares you and it beats you up, but there’s a day when you realize that you’re not just a survivor, you’re a warrior. ~ Brooke Davis_

After the berserkers, Kate Agent, Peter - and more unnecessary craziness than any 17-year-old should be expected to handle, there is a collective exhale and then an eerie silence that makes everyone uncomfortable at first. Then spring comes like it always does and Lydia silently observes that things (mostly) stay the same.

There are still voices, whispered static over loudspeakers, and dire predictions that follow her from her locker to her car, but she can sort them out now, the ones that are important and the ones that are just chatter. It a minor victory, but it is all hers.

Over the summer she and her mother move into a small, pleasant looking house. Lydia gets rid of a lot of things, but some find their way into the “keep” pile and surprise her when she unpacks.

She puts Isaacs’s copy of Red Badge of Courage (probably left behind after an interrupted study session) on her bookshelf. She no longer wears Jackson’s key against her skin, near her heart, but it stays on its chain and hangs on her vanity. There is a necklace of Allison’s - a pretty blue stone on a leather cord- that she wraps around her rearview mirror.

Sometimes, like when she is picking up coffee for Deputy Parrish ( _Jordan, he keeps reminding her – but she just can’t_ ), the sight of that leather cord, makes her feel like an out of control (yearning) compass. She wants to throw the bestiary out the window, and just drive until her skin feels like her own again.

Instead, she steels herself. She will finish this one last thing because that is what she does. When summer is over she will go back to school, will finish her senior year, and then she will leave Beacon Hills behind for good.

All she can think is that if she starts now, maybe she can get a head start. Head starts aren’t cheating, they are preparations for carrying out a plan.

She mostly ignores Scott when he calls. Sometimes it’s Kira, whose even easier to ignore and she doesn’t even feel bad about it. It is never Stiles, but he’s got a girlfriend now, so that explains that.

She’s not exactly avoiding them, it’s just easier being away from them.

She uses the time to blow through the AP English reading list, even the poetry. Browning, Thomas and Whitman are tediously academic, but Borges is kind of magical, and it feels like she finally hears beautiful words like hymns of protection from the inside out. She is good at memorizing things, and tucks certain words away for safe keeping.

She starts school with armor built from scratch and newfound talismans. As Stiles slides into his usual seat behind her, it occurs to her that if Scott is emerging as the most powerful Alpha in a generation, and Kira is earning her first tail, and Derek is evolving - then so is she. Because none of them got there without her, and Lydia Martin is a warrior too.


End file.
